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About Swedish

SEATTLE – October 13, 2014 – Swedish announced today it has received the 2014/2015 Consumer Choice Award from National Research Corporation. The annual award recognizes hospitals across the country for the highest quality and best reputation among area consumers.

Winners are determined by consumer perceptions on multiple quality and image ratings collected in the company’s Market Insights survey – the largest online consumer health care survey in the United States – surveying more than 290,000 households. Hospitals named by consumers are analyzed and ranked based on Core Based Statistical Areas defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, with winning facilities being ranked the highest.

Swedish, like all U.S. hospitals, is prepared to follow Centers for Disease Control’s infectious disease recommendations and protocols. Due to recent infectious disease events, Swedish is increasing its use of screening measures to identify potential cases of infectious disease. These include:

Identifying a patient’s recent travel history

Diagnosing any physical symptoms a patient may be experiencing

If patients are identified to be at risk of having or spreading an infectious disease, Swedish caregivers are prepared to follow appropriate protocols, which may include patient isolation, distribution of appropriate protective equipment for caregivers and patients, restricting visitation and implementing environmental infection control measures. Disease testing only occurs after a screening threshold is met and the patient is identified as a risk.

Study is one of three trials at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle examining novel technology’s treatment potential

SEATTLE — Oct. 1, 2014 — Surgeons from the Swedish Neuroscience Institute (SNI) in Seattle have used focused ultrasound waves to noninvasively treat a metastatic brain tumor. The procedure was performed by Swedish neurosurgeon Stephen Monteith, M.D. and assisted by Charles Cobbs, M.D. and is part of an early stage clinical trial examining the novel technology.

The trial is one of three ongoing studies being conducted by SNI to evaluate the use of focused ultrasound – a technology traditionally associated with imaging and diagnostic procedures – for the noninvasive treatment of neurological disorders. The brain tumors trial, along with separate clinical trials examining focused ultrasound for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor, make SNI one of the nation’s leading research centers for the study of focused ultrasound.

Funds will advance the search for new treatment options and improve patient care

SEATTLE — Sept. 26, 2014 — More than 3,000 walkers filled Seattle Center’s Next 50 Plaza on Sept. 20 for the 7th Annual Seattle Brain Cancer Walk. The walk raised more than $530,000, with 100 percent of the funds supporting research at the Ben & Catherine Ivy Center for Advanced Brain Tumor Treatment at the Swedish Neuroscience Institute (Ivy Center).

“The Seattle Brain Cancer Walk is an opportunity to celebrate the patients and families who are all affected by this devastating disease,” said Charles Cobbs, M.D., medical director of the Ivy Center. “The funds raised will make a direct impact on our research at the Ivy Center, and will help us push toward breakthroughs to better treat, and hopefully cure this disease.”

According to the American Brain Tumor Association, brain tumors are the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Americans under the age of 20; the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men ages 20-39; and the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women ages 20-39.

Prior to the opening of the Ivy Center in 2008, clinical trials for patients with brain tumors were extremely limited in the Pacific Northwest. To date, the Ivy Center has provided access to 15 community-based clinical trials of experimental new therapies for patients diagnosed with brain cancer.

Kris Kowdley, M.D., also named research director of the Swedish Organ Care Program

SEATTLE — Sept. 25, 2014 —Internationally renowned physician and researcher Kris V. Kowdley, M.D., FACP, FACG, AGAF and AASLD Fellow has joined the Swedish Liver Center’s medical staff as Director of the Swedish Liver Care Network and Research Director of the Organ Care Program. Dr. Kowdley will provide transplant and liver care for patients while continuing his groundbreaking research into Hepatitis C. Dr. Kowdley’s first day at Swedish was Sept. 15.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Kowdley to the Swedish Liver Center medical staff,” said Marquis Hart, M.D., director of the Swedish Organ Transplant Program. “Dr. Kowdley’s ambitious research is giving hope to patients with serious liver disease and we are excited to extend his care to our patients.”

Prior to Swedish, Dr. Kowdley served as the director of the Liver Center of Excellence and the director of research at the Digestive Disease Institute at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle.

Dr. Kowdley has presented his research on liver diseases at more than 125 national and international medical centers and scientific symposia. He is the author of more than 350 articles, book chapters, reviews and commentaries. He has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Annals of Internal Medicine and the American Journal of Physiology.

Dr. Kowdley is first author of two seminal papers this year in the NEJM of novel therapies with a high rate of cure for chronic hepatitis C. The AVIATOR trial is the first large study of all-oral treatment for hepatitis C. More than 95 percent of AVIATOR study patients achieved a cure with the 3-D and ribavirin regimen. The second study, known as ION-3, showed that a fixed-dose combination tablet of once-daily ledipasvir and sofosbuvir for eight weeks achieved a cure in 94 percent of patients.

The 2014 rankings include nearly 50 Swedish caregivers and draws from peer endorsements of more than 1,400 doctors, nurses and physician assistants in the Seattle metropolitan area. Nearly 13,000 nominations were narrowed down by an anonymous advisory panel. The panel’s criteria included such items as years of experience, competency, patient rapport and satisfaction and compliance with care recommendations.

Below you will find a list of Swedish providers recognized with this year’s top honor. A complete list of providers can also be found online.

300 Guests Celebrate Hospital’s Half-Century History and Building for the Future

EDMONDS, WA — Sept. 12, 2014 — The mood was festive as about 300 community members celebrated the hospital’s 50th anniversary and groundbreaking milestones at Swedish Edmonds on Wednesday. Shovels plunged into dirt that will be covered one year from now by a two-story, 77,000-square-foot facility to include a new emergency department (ED), urgent care center, observation unit, outpatient diagnostic imaging center, new lobby, front entry, 37,000-square-foot shelled second floor and more.

“This is a historic moment for the community we serve at Swedish Edmonds,” said David Jaffe, chief executive at the hospital. “With this new facility, we can meet the growing healthcare needs for decades to come and offer an unmatched patient experience.”

The hospital opened in 1964 as a result of voters approving the establishment of Snohomish County Public Hospital District #2 in 1962. Back then, the entire facility and property cost $2 million. The new expansion will cost over $60 million.